Cathero jumped the gap between the two ships, using her momentum to accurately place the point of her rapier right about the merchant's heart. Unfortunately for her, he managed to turn aside quickly, turning a possible death blow into merely a scratch.

Emilio quickly drew his sword and engaged the enemy boatswain in melee, playing to his expertise and neatly skewering the man through the chest. The rapier punctured a lung, causing it to collapse, but somehow managed not to be a death-blow.

Fighting open-handed in a duel to the death might not have struck the merchants as the best choice, but after three of them fell unconscious with three successive strikes, the fourth ducked back out of Nathan's reach, fully realizing the power of this strange bald man in less than a second.

Kisuq kicked the bleeding merchant out of his way and leaped down the ladder, once again embedding a tomahawk into a merchant skull. Cathero's rapier might have missed, but the heavy axe head did not. The man's skull split down to the base of his neck, bisecting the brain and spilling cerebro-spinal fluid all over the deck.

Samuel drew his blunderbuss and trained the flare-barreled pistol on his enemy across the way. The proximity of the enemy meant the blunderbuss's punch wasn't dulled at all. The huge, heavy shot slammed home in the merchant's jaw, exploding teeth and slamming bones back through the based of the spinal cord. The merchant maintained his standing position merely because of inertia, and then dropped a few seconds later.

Magnus pulled Mast-splitter high and shouts at the enemy boatswain mere seconds after Emilio skewered him. The boatswain's focus shifted from the swashbuckler who just stabbed him to the giant hulking Norseman and his giant hulking rage. Before he really even had a chance to think about his predicament, a large axe blade dove in from his left and slammed home at waist level, nearly cutting the boatswain in half. As Magnus pulled Mast-splitter free, the merchants entrails spilled onto the deck just before the rest of his mass crumpled.

The last remaining merchant threw his hands up in immediate surrender, dropping all his weapons and pleading for mercy. But it was too late as Ash couldn't hear the cry over the loud report from his musket. The solid lead ball punched a hole right in the merchant's chest. He tumbled off the deck into the water streaming between the two ships.

La Buse shouted in triumph and made his way across the bloody decking, heading straight for the hoy's captain's cabin. "Cathero, Kisuq, with me. L'intangible, Silver-Tongue, string up those sleeping fools and make ready for pressing them. Magnus, you bloody, merde-stained mess, ensure there are no stragglers. Much as I love to see your axe make kindling of masts, perhaps it is good we have working sails, no? Liquid Len, well, you know what to do. Ash, head below with Magnus and inventory the stores. Bring Jacques and Francois* with you. Bring valuables to the deck for counting. The rest of you clean the decks and dispose of the dead."

End of Combat. No need for a map. * Just two random pirates from the crew. Establish whatever rapport with them you wish.

Ash paused. Everyone was winding down... though there were still enemies... hmmm. Well. Belowdecks, perhaps.
He spun, idly waving at Jacques and Francois, and jerked over to the other ship, speaking in almost clear French, with the odd pause.
"Jacques, I ask that you first order the food stocks" that litter the ground, rotting under the midday sun, how can anyone live in this filth, "There should be some division between those and the merchandise" scattered on islands, that perhaps will contain the stillborn fruits of "Their weapon stores should also be reasonably ordered..." or unordered, bastard filthy pirates gut them all like "Francois, I ask that you take a quick inventory of those." No, I don't care what you think. Damn merchant, stay dead! "I will begin cataloging their main hold, whatever they were carrying" peddling, schlepping, inflicting, on us, on us! for "We will most likely use any food or weapons that they have, start bringing those over, after you're done," finished ended accomplished cut done "Get whatever seems worth taking from the hold... hmm... interesting."

Ash paused, having come down into the main hold.
"Yes, that seems alright. Jacques, the food, over there. Especially the rum. Francois, there doesn't seem to be much weapons, possibly those are powderkegs... they may have kept most their weapons elsewhere. Try to be quick, both of you."
He stepped further in, then stopped suddenly, glancing around.
What, nighttime? No... belowdecks... wait a moment, who disorganized my hold! Wait. No. No... hm.
Ah. Yes... that looks interesting.

Nathan eyed his crew closely and nodded. Few losses and possibly good loot. Checking that was Ash's job. He seemed slightly disoriented as usual, but in the end everything usually was sorted well enough.

Nodding to his captain's commands, Nathan nodded to Emilio and began to check the merchant's crew for capable survivors. He was untouched by the fight and moved from one to the other with a grim smile. A few were really badly wounded. A 'thumbs down' indicated for others to put them out of their misery. A stab and a splash later, the body was disposed of.

Those that were only slightly wounded were bound and grouped at the bow. "Wasn't much of a fight," he remarked to Emilio.

Magnus was rather winded after the fight, the Captains comment about looking like a mess not phasing him at the moment. As the blood rage cooled and the red left his eyes he actually steadied himself against the mast for a bit. It started as a low rumble of a growl, "grrwlll ... Yes, Cap'n. Just the sail er the ship too?"

After getting his order he would look overboard for the man who fell between the ships before he ducked deep to get below decks following the mumbling Ash. Magnus was looking for anything of value but specifically kept his eye out for anything that might interest his hobbies and his craft. Until it was certain all danger had passed he kept alert for any surprises as well. He had heard of other ships being rigged to explode to take out pirates before.

After getting anything worthwhile from below decks he would come back to the top to see about the sail or anything else the Captain required before rumaging through the cloths of the corpses and tossing them overboard to feed the sharks. Then he would turn to any surviving merchant that the good doctor managed to save...

With the combat over, 'Cathero' seemed to shrink, returning once again to the blundering nervous little man he usually appeared to be.

Piercing gray eyes surveyed the mess in front of them, passing briefly over the entrails-dripping Norseman. In times past, such a sight might have put Catherine off her lunch, but these days it merely seemed mundane.

"Aye, captain." was her response as she followed La Buse into the cabin.

Nathan raised a brow at Emilio's answer. That attitude won't make you rich. Interesting. Working silently alongside his fellow crew member, Nathan finally commented "they could've given up, hm? They didn't stand a chance and they knew it. They saw it coming." Shrugging, he continues. "If all pirates would stay true to their flags, maybe that would work better."

A few seconds later, Nathan smiled slightly and continued in a low voice. "The men need a good battle every now and then, you know that. But I fear that we cannot afford to lose any in the current situation."

Black bag in hand, Len wasted little time tending to the crew. He ordered a few of the men with superficial wounds to assist those more grievously injured belowdecks, where he could work in relative peace. Although Len focused firstly on his own ship-mates, he did not neglect the hoy's men either; afterall, it was not unlikely they would find their way into La Buse's employ. Those that could be saved, he did. Those few that he could not help found mercy at the end of a small, sharp knife.

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"thank that Doombot guy for making you grow a beard. You looked like an idiot without one." -- treehouse's wifeThe Gold Standard for Creepy - .9999 pure.